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Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S3 Minis show up on Amazon

Handset doesn't offer 4G LTE and it's equipped with slower HSPA+.

Though it has not been officially announced with any carrier in the US, unlocked versions of the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini have surreptitiously cropped up on Amazon. The price? A mere $409.95.

The phone was introduced in October, and it features a Super AMOLED 4-inch display, 5MP rear-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, and dual-core 1GHz processor. The S3 Mini also comes with Samsung’s Touch Wiz user interface laid over Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. That is unlike a majority of the full-size Galaxy S3s available stateside, which come with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Galaxy S3 Mini is essentially a smaller version of the Galaxy S3. It measures approximately 121.6 x 63 x 9.9 mm, while its bigger brother measures in at 136 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm. It doesn't offer LTE support and its frequency differences mean that it won’t work optimally on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network.

While the S3 Mini has been long regarded as the Tweedledee to the Galaxy S3’s Tweedledum within the Android rumor mill, it’s still unclear whether the Galaxy Express and the S3 Mini are the same handset or whether the former was meant to be the US version of the latter. We reached out to both Samsung and AT&T for comment. Samsung did not reply as of publication time, but AT&T said that it had no knowledge of an S3 Mini in its lineup of available phones.

So far, it looks like the phones are selling fast on Amazon. As of this writing, only ten were left in stock. If you are interested in an unlocked, smaller version of the S3, this might be a good time to nab one.

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A Galaxy S3 Mini just seems... unnecessary. I've played around with the Galaxy S3 and it felt very natural in my relatively small hands.

To each his own. I personally thought the S3 was too big. I have to stand on the train a lot, which means I have to be able to use a phone with one hand. I can't reach the "P" on the S3 without stretching my hand in a way that makes me feel like I'm going to drop the phone.

I was really excited about the S3 Mini, but WVGA resolution was a dealbreaker. Heck, my 2.5 year old OG Incredible has a 3.7" screen with WVGA resolution.

Considering you can get a full Galaxy S3 for ~400 new on Craigslist, and you get about as much warranty coverage (i.e. none), I'm hard pressed to understand why it would make sense to buy one of these.

Not having LTE kills it for me. My Fiancee is up for a new phone in Feb and she thinks my S3 is slightly too large. It was either going to be this or an iPhone 5. There is no way on VZW either of us would get a new phone without LTE.

A Galaxy S3 Mini just seems... unnecessary. I've played around with the Galaxy S3 and it felt very natural in my relatively small hands.

The keyword is you said "hands".

I have noticed my colleague with an S3 usually holds his S3 in two hands. It's fine in two hands - a 10" tablet is also perfectly natural in two hands.

The problem is holding it in 1 hand, where anything over 3" is tricky and anything over 4" is impossible.

Espetially with all the good 7" tablets available these days it makes no sense at all to be carrying large phones around. My primary use of my phone is now audio, not looking at the screen. I want an iPod nano sized smartphone.

Espetially with all the good 7" tablets available these days it makes no sense at all to be carrying large phones around. My primary use of my phone is now audio, not looking at the screen. I want an iPod nano sized smartphone.

I just bought a Galaxy Note 2 and I am of the exact opposite opinion...with the Note 2, I can't see any point in owning a 7" tablet. But I spend a lot less time talking on it than I do using the Internet, so...

Espetially with all the good 7" tablets available these days it makes no sense at all to be carrying large phones around. My primary use of my phone is now audio, not looking at the screen. I want an iPod nano sized smartphone.

I just bought a Galaxy Note 2 and I am of the exact opposite opinion...with the Note 2, I can't see any point in owning a 7" tablet. But I spend a lot less time talking on it than I do using the Internet, so...

The note may be a great device for the winter, but in the summer I would hate it. A smaller phone and a tablet you can take or leave at home at will and *still* have everything you may need just on a smaller screen is not a bad setup here.

The S3 Mini is great fr those of us that prefer to not carry around tablets. I use my phone 1 handed, and stick it in my pocket. These huge phones that are coming out cannot be used with one hand, and they don't easily fit in the pockets of non-baggy pants.

I'm with the people who want to be able to hold the phone and text, or dial a number, with one hand. I got a Galaxy Ace 2 (in Europe) because I got to play around with the Ace Plus and liked the smaller size relative to the Galaxy S2. The Ace 2 is larger than the Plus, but still just about manageable in one hand, and not incongruous in a pocket. That said, the Galaxy S3 is more rounded than the S2, which makes the phone feel smaller than it is.

I do wish that smaller smartphones weren't automatically lower-specced than their larger cousins, in some cases for no apparent reason other than price point for the consumer. The Ace 2 has less internal storage than the S2, which came out before it. I don't think storage takes up that much room.

Unfortunately the Ace 2 is still on Gingerbread, so I really hope that Samsung follows through on its promise to bring it to Jelly Bean (and that my carrier plays ball).

For some reason this Phone suffers the same fate most 4" phones: crappy resolution. With 800*480 it's just too expensive. I can't fathom why nobody has a 4" Phone with 720p-ish screen. Maybe it's because we sheep buy whatever is presented us, like widescreen laptops :-/

So far, it looks like the phones are selling fast on Amazon. As of this writing, only ten were left in stock. If you are interested in an unlocked, smaller version of the S3, this might be a good time to nab one.

Please don't make the mistake of thinking this is "an unlocked, smaller version of the S3". Besides not offering LTE, performance will not be at nearly the level of the S3; whereas the S3 offers a super-fast quad-core processor, this has a much-slower (and also previous-gen) dual-core, a much weaker camera, and a much lower resolution screen. If you're expecting anything comparable to the full-size S3, you will be disappointed.

Why do people keep making fuss about throughput, when the biggest problems with mobile networking have to do with latency and reliability?

Latency is much better (sometimes dramatically so) with more recent protocols. And depending on where you are reliability may be even better with standards that are supported not on that many phones yet and are less likely to be congested.

I take serious issue with this statement; the S3 and S3 Mini have, despite the similar branding, almost nothing in common.

It has a lower pixel density screen, a (relatively) anemic processor (dual vs quad and lower clockspeed), it apparently lacks LTE in this variant, has worse cameras on both sides, and has less internal storage.

It would be appreciated if Ars would make it clearer that this handset is *not* in fact a size-reduced version of the S3 and is instead a cheap branding cash-in by Samsung - I would be saddened if people were fooled into buying this last-gen handset on that mistaken impression.

Not having LTE kills it for me. My Fiancee is up for a new phone in Feb and she thinks my S3 is slightly too large. It was either going to be this or an iPhone 5. There is no way on VZW either of us would get a new phone without LTE.

In my experience LTE coverage can be pretty patchy in many places and HSPA+ is plenty fast enough if you have good signal. Until coverage improves signal strength is more often a limiting factor than protocol.

It's not in the S3 hardware class ... you might think of it as a S2 with a smaller screen. Guess what an international S2 still sells for? $450ish. The pricing expectations here are unlikely (probably due to Americans conditioned to pay $0 upfront plus $$$$$$/mo).

I take serious issue with this statement; the S3 and S3 Mini have, despite the similar branding, almost nothing in common.

It has a lower pixel density screen, a (relatively) anemic processor (dual vs quad and lower clockspeed), it apparently lacks LTE in this variant, has worse cameras on both sides, and has less internal storage.

It would be appreciated if Ars would make it clearer that this handset is *not* in fact a size-reduced version of the S3 and is instead a cheap branding cash-in by Samsung - I would be saddened if people were fooled into buying this last-gen handset on that mistaken impression.

Second this. S3 mini is just big misunderstanding. SoC is not even Exynos. Performance wise I would tell is even lower than S2. I was looking for this phone and this was a big disappointment. Even I am still looking for a good 4" phone I think I will order N4. I just can't stand waiting and being disappointment anymore. iP5 is just no go for me. Hoped that successor of Lumia 800 would have more in common with Lumia 920 only the smaller screen (4"), but they changed the design and L820 is just ugly compering to 920.

Sorry Florence but you really should remove this statement as it is false in every sense apart from visual styling. It's misinformation like this that could cause someone to purchase what they mistakenly think is a highish-end phone and from then on decide that Android phones are all slow and laggy and out of date as soon as you buy them (/awaits hilarious comment from another reader).

Yes I know that really Samsung are the root cause of the problem rather than the author herself but I don't want Ars to be a source of misinformation for its readers.

I take serious issue with this statement; the S3 and S3 Mini have, despite the similar branding, almost nothing in common.

It has a lower pixel density screen, a (relatively) anemic processor (dual vs quad and lower clockspeed), it apparently lacks LTE in this variant, has worse cameras on both sides, and has less internal storage.

It would be appreciated if Ars would make it clearer that this handset is *not* in fact a size-reduced version of the S3 and is instead a cheap branding cash-in by Samsung - I would be saddened if people were fooled into buying this last-gen handset on that mistaken impression.

Second this. S3 mini is just big misunderstanding. SoC is not even Exynos. Performance wise I would tell is even lower than S2. I was looking for this phone and this was a big disappointment. Even I am still looking for a good 4" phone I think I will order N4. I just can't stand waiting and being disappointment anymore. iP5 is just no go for me. Hoped that successor of Lumia 800 would have more in common with Lumia 920 only the smaller screen (4"), but they changed the design and L820 is just ugly compering to 920.

regardsSalata

If you're looking for a smaller phone like that, the HTC One S is pretty decent. Doesn't have a quad core, but has much more processing power than the S3 Mini. Just make sure you don't get the weird Asian variant that has an older processor. HTC's Windows Phone 8X and 8S might be worth a look as well, since you expressed an interest in WP8.